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Discussions on QC'ing master discs, and what equipment to use.

Originally Posted by Rich LePage

We have one of those expensive Clover QC systems and based on analysis using that, approach above still seems to produce least errors. A few of the newer drives, notably some Sony OEM units (which are actually Lite On, surprisingly) seem to dependably give few errors at higher speeds, but many others don't, though the error rates are fine for use as refs done high speed.

But, it's case by case. I have two identical model Sony OEM drives and one is very dependable while the other one isn't-- when swapped into same system.
Both run fine, but time and again, one produces higher error rates on discs than the other one. And that's at just about ANY speed, too. Many newer drives actually can do worse at very slow speeds than mid-range ones like about 8x. Each seems to have its own favorite sweet spot in the limited try and see testing I've done.

Also the Mitsui (now MAM-A) QC is just not what it used to be, I seem too often to have to reject burned masters for too many errors. Not willing to send them to a plant unless I can verify in 2 sep test passes that the error rates are very low. With the old burners especially, I run the gold media, seems to give best results and still have only ever had one master rejected by a plant for too many errors -- long ago, before we got the QC system.

Tried the Wavelab demo and liked it, might go with that in a few months. Adobe has a major new version of Audition, supposedly way different than the old Cool Edit Pro, so at some point will probably try both that and Wavelab and see which works better for typical needs here.